As it's gearing up to hit our screens in early 2017, you might wonder why it's taken this long for our first glimpse at the beastie at its heart. Or you might be happy to just be reminded that the movie is happening. Here's the pic in all of its glory, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly:

Yep - that's a big ape.

Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts spilled a few details on the image's context in the movie. “That sequence comes from a point in the movie where you’re not quite sure who Kong is, what his purpose is, how people should be perceiving him," he tells EW.

"Through the folly of man, where our initial instinct is to attack anything that is not a known quantity, both sides jump the gun, Kong and the humans, and it kicks off a relatively messy engagement. At first, of course you’re going to perceive something like that as a terrible threat and monster - the physicality of him alone.”

Don't feel disheartened that you've seen the "best bit" of a monster movie by gazing at the above image. Vogt-Roberts adds that "the reveal you can wait for in the film itself." With news that a new trailer is imminent that's encouraging to hear - at least we won't have seen Kong's unveiling before the film opens. But when will the beast arrive? More good news on that front too:

"I’m sort of sick of the notion that a monster movie needs to wait an hour or 40 minutes until the creature shows up," the director explains. "Kong traditionally does not show up in these movies until very, very late, and the monster traditionally does not show up until very, very late in a monster movie, so a lot of these movies tend to have this structure that’s a bit of a slow burn. Something about this movie made me want to reject that and play a very, very different game."

Kong pops up in the opening sequence and kills a bunch of hapless explorers. Boom.

Place your bets now, folks.

Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts, and starring Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, Toby Kebbell, Tom Wilkinson, John Goodman, Samuel L. Jackson and John C. Reilly, Kong: Skull Island opens in the UK and US on March 10, 2017.